I Built A Bridge!

[tommysgirl]

Good morning Bridge Club

Liz aaaw sweetie, I am so sorry you are having trouble with rehoming your boys. I agree that you are a wonderful chicken mama who deserves virtual hugs not just now but pretty much every day

I also do not want to put pictures of Spot and Gloria on BYC for gender guesses; living in denial has it’s benefits

Love the picture of Fankie, he is beautiful! I am still cranky with him for being a boy though

Rousseau is back to her pretty little self I see.

Love the BFF’s!

And, of course, Desi is as handsome as ever; stunning little man!

TG enabler warning! …. Give Norma some Langshan eggs! Dusty is an Australian Bantam Langshan; the world needs more Langshans! Lol

X2 on your comments re @lizgarf and her flock

Norma update...after locking her in a pen and denying access to "her" nest for about 3 hours on Tuesday I relented and released here. She was miserable, I felt mean and like Tom said..."no one likes to see a sad chicken." As soon as I opened the gate she high tailed it as fast as her little broody feet could carry her back to her nest. 2 hours later she was out with the flock and there was an egg in the nest

She continues to puff and bluster and growl and behave like a harridan and didn't lay an egg yesterday but so far as I know today she is still with the flock. Julie Taylor laid a couple of eggs...decided that was enough and has been trying to broody since. I lift her off she growls and pecks I set her down and she hangs with her buds...Next morning we repeat.

I am hoping the girls develop a better sense of timing as I would like to participate in the New Year's Eve hatch which means I would like someone to be a committed broody by the 10th of Dec. When that happens she will get eggs from a Nor Cal gal who has Pita Pintas like Daphne, Langshans and Creme Legbars all running together. She has just the Langshan and PP roos so the chicks will either be a cool mix or they will be PPs or Langshans. My cochin connection is not selling eggs at this time of year so no Bantam Cochin for me yet...

Do you have Bantam Australorps in Blue in Australia? Now THAT would be someone I would want to add to my flock.

Going to be selling some pullets and hens before the next crop of chicks reaches weaning age...that's the plan anyway. I think getting rid of my extra girls will be easier in Feb than now with the holidays coming up.

 

[lizgarf]

Hi ladies,
Thanks for the hugs. I should have known being a vegetarian chicken-farmer was going to be tough!

I just saw pretty undeniable baby saddle feathers on both Brian and Norma, so it appears to be game over there. No one has tried to crow today, and things are feeling relatively calm, so I'm back to my awaiting-the-inevitable, but less-panicky, state. If things stay calm through the next week, I'll let all the boys grow more sparkly feathers and take a new round of pictures next week to update ads with. If that fails, I'll start asking farmer friends if they want the brahmarans for their holiday supper and try to keep Diego and Frankie for as long as I can get away with it.

TG, you sure you don't want some Brahmarans to add some dark colors and fluffy heft to your flock? Or a blue crimson bantam cochin, possibly carrying the frizzle gene?

Enjoy your long weekend, Teila! Sounds like you have a very reasonable plan in place for Bear. As I've learned, it can be hard to re-home mutt boys, but people still seem to want girls, regardless. I'm sorry your other pretty babies are not being so obvious about their gender - at least not in favorable way.

No one here has cut the cord, but everyone is reddening up a bit, so surely I should get some more eggs soon! In the meantime, here is Jan's prettiest egg so far (left in the secret nest, of course):




**This just in: Grace just squatted for Desi! As horrible as it is to watch someone 10 times her size mount her, it'll be nice to get some white eggs soon!

 

[MistyMountain]

Definitely don't worry about the butter and cream, since everyone is realizing now that low-fat diets are actually bad for you. The sugar is another story! But, you know how I feel about dessert!

Shhh, I pretend the sugar is only a couple tablespoons!!

In any case, I took some pretty pictures!

Frankie in the lemon tree:


Mother and son - at least Rousseau's got her plumage back (for now)!


Diego (his crimson hackles are stunning in person);


The three definite pullets, Cindy, Alice, & Madeline, being BFF's:


Norma/n:



And because Desi loves the camera:

You take such wonderful pictures! Frankie in the lemon tree! Love! Rousseau is looking beautiful! And proud Desi!

Hey folks,
I'm feeling really sad tonight. It's one of those too-frequent times that I feel like a foreigner in the universe I need to call home. I'm realizing that the best I can do for my likely 4 remaining cockerels will be to find someone who will treat them lovingly for the short time they'll have left here. No one seems to want my pretty boys, and it's getting harder for me to keep them in the flock. I think one of them might have crowed today, but I'll never be able to figure out which one it is, and I don't think I can put them all in the man cave at night - at least I'll need a separate crate for Frankie, since the others still want to kill him. And the boys are getting more aggressive. I really want to be able to keep watching them grow, but that will just make the inevitable harder. I don't want to eat them or anyone else for that matter. I just want pretty, feathered, pets who give me eggs! And I want to treat them lovingly and have them be loving back to the world. But, the universe is not set up for that!

So, that's my rant. Can I get a virtual hug from some other chicken-lovers, vegetarian or not?

I know the feeling.

I am not a vegetarian, but I had to separate myself when I was looking for a home for those 9 extra packing peanut leghorn roosters. They were creating all kinds of problems within the flock. Things were crazy and… stressful. Not a word that I would have ever used to define what farm chores are to me. They are my therapy… peaceful. I had to make a change, and the change came in the form of a young boy whose response to my "what are you going to do with them?" question was a simple "put them in my pens." All this, knowing he was going to get them from me BEFORE a swap that he was going to… while trying (that morning) to change drop locations and knock me down a dollar per bird. I was pretty livid, and having cold feet, but I had to convince myself of a few things: there is a good chance they would have never made it to that age had I not taken them in and care for them. They were no longer happy here. If just ONE of them made it to a good home with his own flock, I consider it a win. I see pictures of "Bentoes" on Facebook and that gives me peace. I did what I could.

I really wish you the best of luck in finding those boys a home, and know we are all here for you-- rant away!

Good morning Bridge Club

Liz aaaw sweetie, I am so sorry you are having trouble with rehoming your boys. I agree that you are a wonderful chicken mama who deserves virtual hugs not just now but pretty much every day

I also do not want to put pictures of Spot and Gloria on BYC for gender guesses; living in denial has it’s benefits

Love the picture of Fankie, he is beautiful! I am still cranky with him for being a boy though

Rousseau is back to her pretty little self I see.

Love the BFF’s!

And, of course, Desi is as handsome as ever; stunning little man!

TG enabler warning! …. Give Norma some Langshan eggs! Dusty is an Australian Bantam Langshan; the world needs more Langshans! Lol

The G20 summit is being held in Brisbane (you may have heard). We have Obama, Putin (who was kind enough to bring 4 x Russian war ships with him and park them off our northern coast

) and others dropping in for a visit and for security reasons, half the Brisbane CBD has been locked down meaning residents of the Brisbane City Council area have a public holiday today … woooo hooo, that’s me! Three day weekend. I don’t really have an interest in the G20 but I sure wanna thank it for my long weekend lol.

News from BB:

Cilla = still broody.

Tina, after sitting on imaginary eggs for 3 days has miraculously hatched out two x 7 weeks old babies! Lol
After locking her out of the nest box she has decided that Spot and Gloria are her new bubbies and has reattached the cord; calling them over to feed them, protecting them from their aunties and my feet!

I believe Blondie is close to cutting the cord on Bear. Yesterday, for the first time, when offering her meal worms she ate one herself and gave one to Bear, up until yesterday Bear was getting them all!

Once the cord is cut, I am going to try and find Bear a home. I believe she is a pullet so it should not be too hard.

While I am 80% certain Spot is a rooster, I am still going to hang onto him until I know for sure and I am still on the fence regarding Gloria.

So, Bear will be found a home, Blondie will be integrated back in and I will hang on to Spot and Gloria a bit longer.

We have another remodel in mind! We are going to make the run bigger and now I have the broody box, one big open home for them, rather than separating it off for a broody.

I learnt an important lesson these last few weeks, I am not going to have two hatches at the same time again. One is enough

The three day weekend would have been perfect for the extensions but I think it is probably best to wait until we rehome Bear, integrate Blondie back in and have one flock again. Also, with temperatures expected to hit 35C (95F) on Saturday and 39C (102F) on Sunday, probably best just to concentrate on making sure everyone stays cool (us included).

Welcome to Brisbane World Leaders, enjoy the weather! lol

Oh that silly Tina!

for remodels!!! I know you can not wait until things calm down again! As quickly as these guys are growing, it looks like you will have a relaxing summer! Yay for the long weekend!!

X2 on your comments re @lizgarf and her flock

Norma update...after locking her in a pen and denying access to "her" nest for about 3 hours on Tuesday I relented and released here. She was miserable, I felt mean and like Tom said..."no one likes to see a sad chicken." As soon as I opened the gate she high tailed it as fast as her little broody feet could carry her back to her nest. 2 hours later she was out with the flock and there was an egg in the nest

She continues to puff and bluster and growl and behave like a harridan and didn't lay an egg yesterday but so far as I know today she is still with the flock. Julie Taylor laid a couple of eggs...decided that was enough and has been trying to broody since. I lift her off she growls and pecks I set her down and she hangs with her buds...Next morning we repeat.

I am hoping the girls develop a better sense of timing as I would like to participate in the New Year's Eve hatch which means I would like someone to be a committed broody by the 10th of Dec. When that happens she will get eggs from a Nor Cal gal who has Pita Pintas like Daphne, Langshans and Creme Legbars all running together. She has just the Langshan and PP roos so the chicks will either be a cool mix or they will be PPs or Langshans. My cochin connection is not selling eggs at this time of year so no Bantam Cochin for me yet...

Do you have Bantam Australorps in Blue in Australia? Now THAT would be someone I would want to add to my flock.

Going to be selling some pullets and hens before the next crop of chicks reaches weaning age...that's the plan anyway. I think getting rid of my extra girls will be easier in Feb than now with the holidays coming up.

Wait, you mean people don't ask for farm animals for Christmas

I'll just… make a new list...

Hi ladies,
Thanks for the hugs. I should have known being a vegetarian chicken-farmer was going to be tough!

I just saw pretty undeniable baby saddle feathers on both Brian and Norma, so it appears to be game over there. No one has tried to crow today, and things are feeling relatively calm, so I'm back to my awaiting-the-inevitable, but less-panicky, state. If things stay calm through the next week, I'll let all the boys grow more sparkly feathers and take a new round of pictures next week to update ads with. If that fails, I'll start asking farmer friends if they want the brahmarans for their holiday supper and try to keep Diego and Frankie for as long as I can get away with it.

TG, you sure you don't want some Brahmarans to add some dark colors and fluffy heft to your flock? Or a blue crimson bantam cochin, possibly carrying the frizzle gene?

Enjoy your long weekend, Teila! Sounds like you have a very reasonable plan in place for Bear. As I've learned, it can be hard to re-home mutt boys, but people still seem to want girls, regardless. I'm sorry your other pretty babies are not being so obvious about their gender - at least not in favorable way.

No one here has cut the cord, but everyone is reddening up a bit, so surely I should get some more eggs soon! In the meantime, here is Jan's prettiest egg so far (left in the secret nest, of course):




**This just in: Grace just squatted for Desi! As horrible as it is to watch someone 10 times her size mount her, it'll be nice to get some white eggs soon!

Can I just tell you how big I smile when I see "Brahmarans"?? It sounds so perfect, like it is an actual breed. BEAUTIFUL egg. Way to go Jan!!!

for grace!!!

Now for me. Where do I start. Leghorns never stopped laying. Dar never stopped laying. Brownie just started laying again. So.. seven-give or take- eggs a day here on the homestead.

The triplets went to their new home on Wednesday morning. I am waiting for an update tonight. I hope they enjoy them. Aside from being borderline feral, they sure were pretty. That night, I moved Velma and Chloe back in with Blackbeard. I decided to leave Daphne in with the big girls as she looks so close to laying and has really worked her way up in the pecking order.

It's gotten cold here. We are sitting at 34*F with a high of 40 and a low of 25 tonight. There have been little snow flakes the past couple days, but nothing to accumulate. Here is the kicker. Elsa the splash cochin who is named after Disney's Ice Queen from Frozen… has decided to think about going broody. Yeah. Imagine that. It snows and the Ice Queen wants to have babies. I thought about telling her to "Let it Go" but that would only encourage her. Bad joke, but I had to do it. So anyhow, two nights of removing her from the nest box and almost losing a thumb while collecting eggs. November, 34* and snow is not the time for babies!!

Happy weekend all!

 

[ItalyChickie]

Hi team! I'm sorry for disappearing yet again... the past few weeks have not been very happy chicken wise. And, as you probably figured out by now, I cope with sad things by focusing on something else until I can handle talking about - hence, disappearing. Sorry! I really should have checked in sooner - I didn't mean to make anyone worry.

To give you a very brief summary, a few days after I lost the little Auracana pullet, I had one of the booted bantam chicks come down with the same symptoms. (Or I should really say lack of symptoms, since it went from fine one day to all ruffled up and not moving and then gone the next day.) And then another... and another... so there are only three of them left now.

As a side note, I had put all the chicks on cocci meds after losing the Auracana, and the treatment was already done by the time this started happening with the banties, so I think I can exclude cocci (also no symptoms), but what it was, I have no idea, and now I am terrified for all the rest of them, if it is something contagious.

Then, just as I was getting over that, I noticed that Shakira was missing when I got home one afternoon. A very very long search until it got too dark turned up nothing, but I was still hopeful that she was just hiding somewhere and would show up in the morning... instead, a neighbor told me in the morning that he found her dead by his entrance (which is the opposite end of his property). I have NO idea how she could have gotten there since there is chick-proof fencing.... This also happens to be the neighbor with chickens, so she actually should have been fairly safe over there... unless some predator grabbed her and then lost her, and the shock and cooler temps overnight did the rest. Anyway. No point dwelling, I have done enough of that by now... just really upset that it's always those I like best...

Well, I'd say that's enough sad news, hopefully I won't have any more any time soon.

I'm going to go read however many pages of posts you managed to write in the meantime, so I can talk about YOUR chickens! (may take me a few days, lol)

Hugs to all!

ETA: Just read the few lines above, MM, and remembered my other news - it's not just your Snow Queen! Okay, it isn't snowing here, but it's definitely not summer temps either, but I just managed to break broody Pesca, and now Chiocciola is broody again... aren't these hens supposed to know that it's winter?

 

[Teila]

Goood morning Bridge Club

TG aaaaw, that Norma story is cute! I did that to Cilla once, locked her out of the nest box because I thought she was being broody; same scenario, she was being so insistent I caved and after she laid her egg, back out with everyone else

I locked Tina out of the nest box all day yesterday and when I took down the divider so that her and bubs could go to bed, she raced up the ramp so fast, nearly set the thing on fire! No egg though, just full on broody!

Tina is switching between motherhood and broodiness at the moment; talk about hormone overload!

Cilla is still persisting and will be locked out of the nest box shortly. I can’t have either of them sitting in the nest box all day in the 35C (95F) and 39C (102F) temps we have predicted. Had the mister going for a while yesterday to keep everyone cool.

We sure do have Bantam Australorps in Blue TG, very pretty chickens!

Liz that egg is beautiful!

I agree ‘Brahmarans’ is cool, definitely should be a breed!

MM chuckling so much at your farm animals for Christmas list!

I have this urge to break into a rendition of Old MacDonald’s farm but with “here a broody, there a broody, everywhere a broody broody”!

IC I can’t even begin to try and put into words how very sorry I am to read your news

I wish I had an answer for you but the lack of symptoms is weird. As you know, I have lost a couple of chickens (Suzi & Allsorts) to 'fine at bed time, gone within two hours past dawn the next day'. But these were 'single' occurrences, no one else affected.

I put these down to either dramatic temperature change, something that bit them or something they ate. Is there possibly something around this time of year that they are eating? Nothing mouldy they could be getting their little beaks into? Definitely not questioning your chicken mumma skills but just throwing ideas out there .. no signs of lice etc? With the lack of symptoms I also agree that cocci could pretty much be ruled out.

 

[ItalyChickie]

IC I can’t even begin to try and put into words how very sorry I am to read your news

I wish I had an answer for you but the lack of symptoms is weird. As you know, I have lost a couple of chickens (Suzi & Allsorts) to 'fine at bed time, gone within two hours past dawn the next day'. But these were 'single' occurrences, no one else affected.

I put these down to either dramatic temperature change, something that bit them or something they ate. Is there possibly something around this time of year that they are eating? Nothing mouldy they could be getting their little beaks into? Definitely not questioning your chicken mumma skills but just throwing ideas out there .. no signs of lice etc? With the lack of symptoms I also agree that cocci could pretty much be ruled out.

Thank you Teila, I know what you mean, we're a bit limited in expressing emotions like sympathy via forums since it's not easy to do with just words... I really appreciate the virtual hug.

And I am very very sorry to read about Allsorts, too.

You're right though; when it's a single occurrence like that the simplest explanation is that something specific to that chick was wrong... in my case, there's the worry that it's something that can still affect others.

I did a pretty thorough examination, and found no parasites, no injuries, no external signs of any kind. The only thing that seemed off is that there was a bit of swelling/bluish skin tint in the abdomen area - this was common to all of them, and with two it kind of seemed like there was a blockage somewhere. Sorry if this is gross/too much info, but basically it looked like not all the poop had come out - as would normally happen in their final moments. Which leads me to believe there were digestive issues there.
(Edited to add: the crops were fine, so if there was blockage it would have had to be further down...)

I'm excluding mouldy feed as such (I put fresh each day), but of course, since they free range, I can't be sure that they didn't find something mouldy or otherwise not edible while scratching. However, given the season: fall - so rainy, cooler temps, migrating birds, lots of worms, etc. - some kind of a bacteria is also a possibility. Something that the stronger immune systems might be able to resist, maybe?

These were the chicks raised by Pallina, who didn't do a stellar job as a first-time mom, and, as you may remember, I added them in with Ombretta's chicks when Pallina abandoned them too early. They were a bit runty to begin with (except for two - these are 2 of the 3 that are okay so far), not growing as well as others, but started doing better after a while, or so it seemed... they are all inseparable now, yet Ombretta's chicks were/are fine. (Fingers crossed they stay that way!)

So I don't really know... it could be a combination of some sort of a virus and weaker chicks to begin with... or it could be that the stronger ones aren't showing symptoms YET. I just wish there was something I could give them without the possibility that I'd be making things worse!

I have been intensifying natural remedies - garlic and ACV - but no idea if that's doing anything... any ideas/suggestions are welcome.

I have this urge to break into a rendition of Old MacDonald’s farm but with “here a broody, there a broody, everywhere a broody broody”!

Hahahahaha thank you for that laugh, I needed it!

I'm going to go and try putting Chiocciola somewhere with no access to nest boxes now... although, knowing her, she'll just try to hatch some rocks in the middle of the garden or something.

 

[ItalyChickie]

In the meantime, here is Jan's prettiest egg so far (left in the secret nest, of course):

I just have to say, that is the most beautiful egg I have ever seen!!! *swoons*

I'm sorry to hear about boy rehoming issues, Liz... I've been lucky so far, but I'll probably end up in a similar situation sooner or later... Big virtual hug! Wish I could do something more to help.

 

[lizgarf]

I just have to say, that is the most beautiful egg I have ever seen!!! *swoons*

I'm sorry to hear about boy rehoming issues, Liz... I've been lucky so far, but I'll probably end up in a similar situation sooner or later... Big virtual hug! Wish I could do something more to help.

Thanks, IC! Now if only Jan would stop using secret nests! I haven't found yesterday's egg, yet, but I saw her looking for some place to lay it.

I am so sorry for all the loss you are going through right now! That must be heart-breaking. It's a terrible feeling to not know how to protect your loved-ones from whatever it is that is ailing them.
The only thing that occurred to me is when you mentioned losing your Aracauna, I remembered reading that they can carry a lethal gene, and wondered if maybe your babies had a genetic infirmity that was not letting them mature. Of course, that doesn't help poor Shakira! So very sorry to hear about her passing. I really hope everyone else makes it through this rough patch!

Thanks for the support of the Brahmarans, everyone! May I suggest it as a new breed? Perhaps you'd like a brahmarans roo? Big, fluffy, and colorful! So far, these boys aren't as docile as their brahma mom, but maybe that's just their adolescent boy phase. MM, just occurred to me, I can almost see you hoping for some boy with a few bucks and some pens to come by in a few years when your boys are teenagers! Adolescent boys are just trouble in most species! Cute story about the ice queen!

Good luck with the heat, Teila! My chickens are definitely spoiled by the consistently mild temps of the Bay Area.

 

[Teila]

Hey Team

Everyone coped pretty well with the heat yesterday except LuLu, she was panting heavily, wings held out.

I had the mister going, frequently damped down the garden/dirt, frequent changes of water to cold from the fridge and watermelon available. With LuLu I damped down her comb, face and chest; the poor little thing even felt hot!

I am a little worried about her as it is going to be 8 degrees hotter today than yesterday expected to peak at 40C (104F).

I put out a call to the Aussie Thread asking what other signs I need to keep an eye out for and when I need to take ‘drastic’ steps and what they could be, like actually putting her in water. However, I have heard that this can kill them quicker but another Aussie on the thread mentioned that she lost two to heat stroke last year and saved the third one my putting it in a bucket of water.

It is going to be a long worrisome day; luckily tomorrow is predicted to be 10 degrees cooler than today, back down to 30C.

 

[lizgarf]

Hey Team

Everyone coped pretty well with the heat yesterday except LuLu, she was panting heavily, wings held out.

I had the mister going, frequently damped down the garden/dirt, frequent changes of water to cold from the fridge and watermelon available. With LuLu I damped down her comb, face and chest; the poor little thing even felt hot!

I am a little worried about her as it is going to be 8 degrees hotter today than yesterday expected to peak at 40C (104F).

I put out a call to the Aussie Thread asking what other signs I need to keep an eye out for and when I need to take ‘drastic’ steps and what they could be, like actually putting her in water. However, I have heard that this can kill them quicker but another Aussie on the thread mentioned that she lost two to heat stroke last year and saved the third one my putting it in a bucket of water.

It is going to be a long worrisome day; luckily tomorrow is predicted to be 10 degrees cooler than today, back down to 30C.

Is there a cool indoor location you can put them during the hottest part of the day? Maybe a garage or a non-carpeted room with some AC?
Good luck!